Chapter 12

Alexander, the bishop of Alexandria by whom Arius had beenexcommunicated, died soon after returning home from the Council ofNicaea; and Athanasius, who was then about thirty years of age, waschosen in his stead, and governed the Alexandrian Church forsix-and-forty years. Every one knows the name of St. Athanasius,from the creed which is called after it. That creed, indeed, was notmade by St. Athanasius himself; but, as the Prayer-book says, it is"commonly called" his, because it sets forth the true Christianfaith, of which he was the chief defender in his day. And we arebound to honour this learned and holy bishop, as the man by whomespecially God was pleased that His truth should be upheld andestablished against all the craft of Arius and his party, and evenagainst all the power of the emperors of Rome.

For, although Arius had been sent into banishment, he soon managed to get into favour at the emperor's court. One of his friends, apriest, gained the ear of Constantine's sister, and this princess,when she was dying, recommended the priest to the emperor. NeitherConstantine nor his sister understood enough of the matter to be ontheir guard against the deceits of the Arian, who was able topersuade the emperor that Arius had been ill-used, and that he didnot really hold the opinions for which the council had condemnedhim. Arius, then, was allowed to return from banishment, andConstantine desired Athanasius to receive him back into the Church,saying that he was not guilty of the errors which had been laid tohis charge. But Athanasius knew that this was only a trick; and heanswered that, as Arius had been condemned by a council of the wholeChurch, he could not be restored by anything less than another suchcouncil.

The Arians, on finding that they could not win Athanasius over,resolved to attack him. They contrived that all sorts of chargesagainst him should be carried to the emperor; and in the year 335, acouncil was held at Tyre for his trial. One story was, that he hadkilled an Egyptian bishop, named Arsenius, that he had cut off hishand, and had used it for magical purposes (for, among other things,Athanasius was said by his enemies to be a sorcerer!), and the driedhand of a man was shown, which was said to be that of Arsenius. Butwhen the time came for examining this charge, what was the confusionof the accusers at seeing Arsenius himself brought into the council!He was dressed in a long cloak, and Athanasius lifted it up, firston one side, and then on the other, so as to show that the man wasnot only alive, but had both his hands safe and sound. The leadersof the Arians had known that Arsenius was not dead, but they hadhoped that he would not appear. But, happily for Athanasius, one ofhis friends had discovered Arsenius, and had kept him hidden untilthe right moment came for producing him.

Athanasius was able to answer the other charges against him, as well as that about Arsenius; and the Arians, seeing that they mustcontrive some new accusation, sent some of his bitterest enemiesinto Egypt, to rake up all the tales that they could find.Athanasius knew what he might expect from people who could act sounfairly; he therefore resolved not to wait for their return, butgot on board a ship which was bound for Constantinople. On arrivingthere, he posted himself in a spot outside the city, where heexpected the emperor to pass in returning from a ride; and whenConstantine came up, he threw himself in his way. The emperor wasstartled; but Athanasius told him who he was, and entreated him, bythe thought of that judgment in which princes as well as subjectsmust one day appear, to order that the case should be tried beforehimself, instead of leaving it to judges from whom no justice was tobe looked for. The emperor agreed to this, and was very angry withthose who had behaved so unjustly in the council at Tyre. But aftera time some of the Arians got about him and told him anotherstory--that Athanasius had threatened to stop the sailing of thefleet which carried corn from Alexandria to Constantinople. This wasa charge which touched Constantine very closely, becauseConstantinople depended very much on the Egyptian corn for food, andhe thought that the bishop, who had so much power at Alexandria,might perhaps be able to stop the fleet, and to starve the people ofthe capital, if he pleased. And--whether the emperor believed thestory, or whether he wished to shelter Athanasius for a while fromhis persecutors by putting him out of the way--he sent him intobanishment at Treves, on the banks of the Moselle, in a part of Gaulwhich is now reckoned to belong to Germany. Except for theseparation from his flock, this banishment would have been no greathardship for Athanasius, for he was treated with great respect bythe bishop of Treves, and by the emperor's eldest son, who livedthere, and all good men honoured him for his stedfastness inupholding the true faith.

But, although Athanasius was removed, the Alexandrian Church would not admit Arius. So, after a while, the emperor resolved to have himadmitted at Constantinople, and a council of bishops agreed that itshould be so. The bishop of Constantinople, whose name wasAlexander, and who was almost a hundred years old, was grievouslydistressed at this; he desired his people to entreat God, withfasting and prayer, that it might not come to pass, and he threwhimself under the altar, and prayed very earnestly that the evilwhich was threatened might be somehow turned away: or that, atleast, he himself might not live to see it.

At length, on the evening before the day which had been fixed forreceiving Arius into the Church, he was going through the streets ofConstantinople, in high spirits, and talking with some friends ofwhat was to take place on the morrow. But all at once he felthimself ill, and went into a house which was near, and in a fewminutes he was dead! His death, taking place at such a time and insuch a way, made a great impression, and people were ready enough tolook on it as a direct judgement of God on his impiety. ButAthanasius, although he felt the awfulness of the unhappy man'ssudden end, did not take it on himself to speak in this way; and wetoo shall do well not to pronounce judgment in such cases,remembering what our Lord said as to the Galileans who were slain byPilate, and as to the men who were killed by the falling of thetower of Siloam (St. Luke xiii. 1-5). While we abhor the errors ofArius, let us leave the judgment of him to God

Although Constantine in his last years was very much in the hands ofthe Arians, we must not suppose that he meant to favour theirheresy. For these people (as I have said already, and shall haveoccasion to say again) were very crafty, and took great pains tohide the worst of their opinions. They used words which soundedquite right, except to the few persons who, like Athanasius, werequick enough to understand what bad meanings might be disguisedunder these fair words. And whenever they wished to get one of thefaithful bishops turned out, they took care not to attack him about his faith, but about some other things, as we have seen in the caseof Athanasius. Thus they managed to blind the emperor, who did notknow much about the matter, so that, while they were using him as atool, and were persuading him to help them with all his power, heall the while fancied that he was firmly maintaining the Nicenefaith.

Constantine, after all that he had done in religious disputes, wasstill unbaptized. Perhaps he was a "catechumen", which (as has beenexplained before, see page 18) was the name given to persons whowere supposed to be in a course of training for baptism; but it isnot certain that he was even so much as a catechumen. At last,shortly after the death of Arius, the emperor felt himself verysick, and believed that his end was near. He sent for some bishops,and told them that he had put off his baptism because he had wishedto receive it in the river Jordan, like our Lord Himself; but as Godhad not granted him this, he begged that they would baptize him. Hewas baptized accordingly, and during the remaining days of his lifehe refused to wear any other robes than the white dress which usedthen to be put on at baptism, by way of signifying the cleansing ofthe soul from sin. And thus the first Christian emperor died at apalace near Nicomedia, on Whitsunday in the year 337.

PART II (AD 337-361)

At Constantine's death, the empire was divided among his three sons.The eldest of them, whose name was the same as his father's, and theyoungest, Constans, were friendly to the true faith. But the secondson, Constantius, was won over by the Arians; and as, through thedeath of his brothers, he got possession of the whole empire withina few years, his connexion with that party led to great mischief.All through his reign, there were unceasing disputes about religion.Councils were almost continually sitting in one place or another, and bishops were posting about to one of them after another at theemperor's expense. Constantius did not mean ill, but he went evenfurther than his father in meddling with things which he did notunderstand.

The Arians went on in the same cunning way as before. I may mention,by way of example, the behaviour of Leontius, bishop of Antioch. TheCatholics (that is to say, those who held the faith which the Churchthroughout all the world held (the word "Catholic", which means"Universal", is not to be confounded with "Roman-Catholic")), usedto sing in church, as we do-- "Glory be to the Father, and to theSon, and to the Holy Ghost;" but the Arians sang, "Glory be to theFather, by the Son, in the Holy Ghost"--for they did not allow theSecond and Third Persons to be of the same nature with the First.Leontius, then, who was an Arian, and yet did not wish people toknow exactly what he was, used to mumble his words, so that nobodycould make them out, until he came to the part in which all partiesagreed; and then he sang out loudly and clearly-- "As it was in thebeginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen." Hewas an old man, and sometimes he would point to his white hair, andsay, "When this snow melts, there will be a great deal of mud,"meaning that after his death the two parties would come to openquarrels, which he had tried to prevent during his lifetime by suchcrafty behaviour as that which has just been mentioned.

The three young emperors met shortly after their father's death. Itwas agreed between them that Athanasius should be allowed to returnto Alexandria; and for this favour he was chiefly indebted to youngConstantine, who had known him during his banishment at Treves. Thebishop returned accordingly, and was received with great rejoicingby his flock. But in about three years his enemies contrived that heshould be again turned out (AD 341), and he was in banishment eightyears. He was then restored again (AD 349); but his enemies watchedtheir time and spared no pains to get rid of him. One by one, they contrived to thrust out all the chief bishops who would have beeninclined to take part with him; and at length, in the beginning of356, Constantius sent a general named Syrianus to Alexandria, withorders to drive out Athanasius. The Alexandrians were so muchattached to their great bishop that there was a fear lest they mightprevent any open attempt against him. But Syrianus contrived tothrow them off their guard, and one night, while Athanasius waskeeping watch with many of his clergy and people, in one of thechurches (as the Christians of those days used to do before theirgreat festivals and at other times), Syrianus suddenly beset thechurch with a great number of soldiers, and a multitude made up ofArians, Jews and the heathen rabble of the city. When Athanasiusheard the noise outside the church, he sat down calmly on histhrone, and desired the congregation to chant the hundred andthirty-sixth psalm, in which God's deliverances of His people in oldtimes are celebrated; and the whole congregation joined in the lastpart of every verse--"For His mercy endureth for ever." The doorswere shut, but the soldiers forced them open and rushed in; and itwas a fearful sight to see their drawn swords and their armourflashing by the lamplight in the house of God. As they advanced upthe church, many of the congregation were trodden down or crushed todeath, or pierced through with their darts. Athanasius stood calm inthe midst of all the terrible din. His clergy, when they saw thesoldiers pushing on towards the sanctuary (as the part of the churchwas called that was railed off for the clergy), entreated him tosave himself by flight; but he declared that he would not go untilhis people were safe, and waited until most of them had made theirescape through doors in the upper part of the church. At last, whenthe soldiers were pressing very close to the sanctuary, the clergyclosed round their bishop, and hurried him away by a secret passage.And when they had got him out of the church, they found that he hadfainted; for although his courage was high, his body was weak anddelicate, and the dreadful scene had overcome him. But he escaped to the deserts of Egypt, where he lived in peace among the monks forsix years, until the death of Constantius. His enemies thought thathe might perhaps, seek a refugee in Ethiopia, and Constantius wroteto beg that the princes of that country should not shelter him, andthat the bishop, Frumentius (see page 41), might be sent to receiveinstruction in the faith from the Arian bishop who was put into thesee of Alexandria. But Athanasius was safe elsewhere, and Frumentiuswisely stayed at home.

The new Arian bishop of Alexandria was a Cappadocian named George.He was a coarse, ignorant, and violent man, and behaved with greatcruelty to Athanasius's friends--even putting many of them to death.But Athanasius from his quiet retreat, kept a watch over all thatwas done as to the affairs of the Church, both at Alexandria andelsewhere; and from time to time he wrote books, which reachedplaces where he himself could not venture to appear. So that,although he was not seen during these years, he made himself felt,both to the confusion of the Arians, and to the comfort andencouragement of the faithful.

PART III: (AD 361-371)

Constantius had no children, and after the death of Constans (AD350), his nearest male relation was a cousin named Julian. Theemperor gave his sister in marriage to this cousin, and also gavehim the government of a part of the empire; but he always treatedhim with distrust and jealousy, so that Julian never loved him. Andthis was not the worst of it; for Julian, who had lost his fatherwhen he was very young, and had been brought up under the directionof Constantius, took a strong dislike to his cousin's religion,which was forced on him in a way that a lively boy could not well beexpected to relish. He was obliged to spend a great part of his timein attending the services of the Church, and was even made a reader, (which was one of the lowest kinds of ministers in theChurch of those times,) and, unfortunately, the end of all this was,that instead of being truly religious, he learned to be a hypocrite.When he grew older, and was left more to himself, he fell into thehands of the heathen philosophers, who were very glad to get hold ofa prince who might one day be emperor. So Julian's mind was poisonedwith their opinions, and he gave up all belief in the Gospel,although he continued to profess himself a Christian for nine yearslonger. On account of his having thus forsaken the faith he iscommonly called the "Apostate."

At length, when Julian was at Paris, early in the year 361,Constantius sent him some orders which neither he nor his soldierswere disposed to obey. The soldiers lifted him up on a shield andproclaimed him emperor; and Julian set out at their head to fightfor the throne. He marched boldly eastward, until he came to theDanube; then he embarked his troops and descended the great riverfor many hundreds of miles into the country which is now calledHungary. Constantius left Antioch, and was marching to meet Julian'sarmy, when he was taken ill, and died at a little town in Cilicia.Like his father, he was baptized only a day or two before his death.

Julian now came into possession of the empire without furtherdispute; and he did all that he could to set heathenism up again.But in many parts of the empire, Christianity had taken such rootthat very few of the people held to the old religion, or wished tosee it restored. Thus, we are told that once, when the emperor wentto a famous temple near Antioch, on a great heathen festival, in thehope of finding things carried on as they had been beforeConstantine's time, only one old priest was to be seen; and, insteadof the costly sacrifices which had been offered in the former daysof heathenism, the poor old man had nothing better than a singlegoose to offer.

Julian knew that in past times Christians had always been ready tosuffer for their faith, and that the patience of the martyrs had always led to the increase of the Church. He did not think it wise,therefore, to go to work in the same way as the earlier persecutingemperors, but he contrived to annoy the Christians very much byother means, and sometimes great cruelties were committed againstthem under his authority. Yet, with all this, he pretended to allowthem the exercise of their religion, and he gave leave to those whohad been banished by Constantius to return home,--not that he reallymeant to do them any kindness, but because he hoped that they wouldall fall to quarrelling among themselves, and that he should be ableto take advantage of their quarrels. But in this hope he was happilydisappointed, for they had learnt wisdom by suffering, and weredisposed to make peace with each other as much as possible, whilethey were all threatened by the enemies of the Saviour's very name.

The first thing that the heathens of Alexandria did when they heardof the death of Constantius had been to kill the Arian bishop,George; for he had behaved in such a way that the heathens hated himeven more than the Catholics did. Another Arian bishop was set up inhis place; but when Julian had given leave for the banished toreturn, Athanasius came back, and the Arian was turned out.

The Alexandrians received Athanasius with great joy and he did allthat was in his power to reconcile the parties of Christians amongthemselves. For, although no one could be more earnest than he inmaintaining every particle of the faith necessary for a trueChristian, he was careful not to insist on things which were notnecessary. He knew, too, that people who really meant alike wereoften divided from each other by not understanding one another'swords; and he was always ready to make allowance for them, as far ashe could do so without giving away the truth. But Julian was afraidto let him remain at Alexandria, and was greatly provoked at hearingthat he had converted and baptized some heathen ladies of rank. Sothe emperor wrote to the Alexandrians, telling them that, althoughthey might choose another bishop for themselves, they must not let Athanasius remain among them, and banishing the bishop from allEgypt. Athanasius, when he heard of this, said to his friends, "Letus withdraw; this is but a little cloud which will soon pass over;"and he set off up the river Nile in a boat. After a while, anotherboat was seen in pursuit of him; but Athanasius then told hisboatmen to turn round, and to sail down the river again; and whenthey met the other boat, from which they had not been seen untilafter turning, they answered the questions of its crew in such a waythat they were allowed to pass without being suspected of having thebishop on board. Thus Athanasius got safe back to the city, andthere he lay hid securely while his enemies were searching for himelsewhere. But after a little time he withdrew to the deserts, wherehe was welcomed and sheltered by his old friends the monks.

In his hatred of Christianity, Julian not only tried to restoreheathenism, but also showed favour to the Jews. He sent for some ofthem, and asked why they did not offer sacrifice as their law hadordered? They answered that it was not lawful to sacrifice except inthe temple of Jerusalem, which was now in ruins, and did not belongto them, so that they could no longer fulfil the duty ofsacrificing. Julian then gave them leave to build the temple upagain, and the Jews came together in vast numbers from the differentcountries into which they had been scattered. Many of them had gotgreat wealth in the lands of their banishment, and it is said thateven the women laboured at the work, carrying earth in their richsilken dresses, and that tools of silver were used in the building.The Jews were full of triumph at the thought of being restored totheir own land, and of reviving the greatness of David and Solomon.But it was not to be. An earthquake scattered the foundations which had been laid; balls of fire burst forth from the ground, scorchingand killing many of the workmen; their tools were melted bylightning; and stories are told of other fearful sights, which putan end to the attempt. Julian indeed, meant to set about it oncemore after returning from a war which he had undertaken against thePersians. But he never lived to do so. Athanasius was not mistakenwhen he said that his heathen emperor's tyranny would be only as apassing cloud, for Julian's reign lasted little more than a year anda half in all. He led his army into Persia in the spring of 363, andin June of that year he was killed in a skirmish by night.

Julian left no child to succeed him in the empire, and the armychose as his successor a Christian named Jovian, who soon undid allthat Julian had done in matters of religion. The new emperor invitedAthanasius to visit him at Antioch, and took his advice as to therestoration of the true faith. But Jovian's reign lasted only eightmonths, and Valentinian, who was then made emperor, gave the empireof the East to his brother Valens, who was a furious Arian, andtreated the Catholics with great cruelty. We are told, for instance,that when eighty of their bishops had carried a petition to him, heput them on board a ship, and when it had got out to sea, thesailors, by his orders, set it on fire, and made their escape inboats, leaving the poor bishops to be burned to death.

Valens turned many "orthodox" bishops (that is to say, bishops "ofthe right faith") out of their sees, and meant to turn outAthanasius, who hid himself for a while in his father's tomb. Butthe people of Alexandria begged earnestly that their bishop might beallowed to remain with them, and the emperor did not think it safeto deny their request, lest there should be some outbreak in thecity. And thus, while the faith of which Athanasius had so long beenthe chief defender, and for the sake of which he had borne so much, was under persecution in all other parts of the eastern empire, thegreat bishop of Alexandria was allowed to spend his last years amonghis own flock without disturbance. He died in the year 373, at theage of seventy-six.